The Jump Rope
by TrishaTonks
Summary: Arthur Weasley charmed a jump rope to swing for the Rose, Victoire, and seven year old Lucy Weasley-Tonks. One-shot, slight Ginny/Tonks. Just some fluffy innocence, really.


_A/N: This was just a a random thought that came into my mind while trying to work on my other story. I remembered when I was little, all those jump rope games we would play. One-shot/drabble. Hope you like it!_

_Disclaimer: I own Lucy, and that is it._

* * *

"Mummy, Mum! Come here! Look at this!" seven year old Lucy Weasley-Tonks yelled out over to her parents. Agreed by everyone at the adult table, Lucy was one of the cutest kids to every grace the Burrow. Her heart-shaped face and metamorphagous abilities came from her mum, Nymphadora Tonks, and her natural flaming red hair and freckles came from her mummy, Ginny Weasley. Her eyes were bright, and her smile was missing a single tooth.

Over with the Lucy were Victoire and Rose, both around the same age as her. With them was an enchanted jump rope, found and charmed by their granddad, Arthur Weasley. Victoire and Rose each held onto one end of the jump rope, and it magically started to swing itself.

"Come on, Lucy, jump in already!" cried out Victoire, a picture of impatience.

"Hold on, Victoire! I'm waiting for Mummy and Mum!" Lucy yelled back. "Come _on_ Mum! Mummy! Hurry up!"

Lucy was getting impatient herself, stomping her foot on the ground. One glare from her grandmother set her straight though.

"I'm coming, Lucy dear," Ginny yelled over to her daughter. Grasping Tonks' hand, she pulled her up from the table and walked over to where the girls were playing.

"Did you need us?" Tonks asked her.

"Watch this Mummy!" Lucy exclaimed.

Jumping into the magic jump rope, each time she hopped her hair changed a different color.

"Ready Lucy?" Rose asked. Then, she counted to three.

"Ickle Fickle Voldy,  
He was really, really Moldy,  
No mellow, yellow, fellow,  
He liked to eat green jello,  
He had a big, fat snake-y,  
His head was really flaky,  
And when he would arrive,  
How many people would survive?  
One, Two, Three, Four, Five-"

Lucy stumbled on the rope, and it got tangled so that she became a heaping pile of rope and body on the ground. Victoire, Rose, and Lucy were laughing hysterically at their game and made-up rhyme. Ginny, however, weren't so happy. A rhyme about how many people would survive when Voldemort showed up? Quite frankly, she was appalled, and Tonks saw that.

"That was really great Lucy, good job!" Tonks told her daughter, before pulling a distraught Ginny to the kitchen.

"I… I can't believe they would make up a rhyme about that! Rose I can see not knowing any better, but Victoire and Lucy… How many times have we told her about He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named? How evil he was, how many murders he committed? I-"

"Gin, shh," Tonks told her wife, pulling her in close. "Lucy knows better, I know that, but they weren't there. You know that. They're just having fun. Let them. You grew up too fast, forced to see things no other child should have had to see. Its not that way for Lucy. Let her have her fun, come on now, lets go outside."

Ginny gave Tonks a watery smile before kissing her briefly- a short, sweet, tender kiss. Taking her hand again, they went outside to find the children playing a more… pleasant… rhyme.

"Nargles, nargles, everywhere,  
Floating around in thin air,  
How many end up in your hair?  
One, two, three, four, five, six…"

The girls were laughing, their eyes bright with youthful innocence. Smiling, Tonks led the way over to them.

"Have you girls been talking to Auntie Luna?" she called out, changing her nose to the duck bill, then to the pig snout- Lucy's favorite. At their sheepish expressions, she jumped into the rope.

"Nym…" Ginny warned. Tonks just shushed her and jumped in. She barely made it past 'floating' before she tripped over the rope and fell flat on her face. Laughing, she stood up and pulled Ginny over.

"Now its your turn, Gin!" Tonks said, laughing.

"No way, I don't think so." Ginny exclaimed. There was no way that she was getting in that thing…

They next thing she knew, there she was, trying to hop along to the rhyme, laughing just as Tonks had done.

Tonks smiled to herself. _Innocence. I knew you still had some of that behind your eyes._


End file.
